Dubnyk lets in the 3-2 goal and suddenly we're back to playing defense first hockey which as we've seen recently against Chicago and to a lesser degree Nashville sucks the life out of our team. It's a combination of goaltending and a young team, trying to absolve one or the other is the wrong call IMO.

Ok, so we can agree. He's playing like a "rookie" - and struggling to cope with the responsibility he's been given.

Best way to handle a guy with his talent level is to

1) shield him on the bottom pairing with a solid defenseman (not Nick Schultz, borderline #7 on this team)
2) Give him Grade-A PP opportunity, because in terms of PP point production from the blue line he's top-10 in the league.

As his game develops you slowly introduce him into a top-4 role. Kid might be 25-26 before we get a true understanding of WHERE he can play on the blue line.

Where's his strengths as a puck-moving, transitional defenseman - why are his GF/60 so low?

He's not ready for the role we've placed him in. I'm not calling him a bust, I'm not even calling him overrated. I'm saying this team needs to bring in some legitimate top-4 defensemen before they can start parading themselves as a playoff contender.

Yep.

Petry and Smid should be 2nd pairing defensemen and the Schultz's should be on a bottom pairing. Justin is a rookie so he'll be more than fine eventually but he's just not ready for the minutes that he's getting.
Again, similar to years past, almost all the defensemen are playing a pairing too high.
The only ones who are playing where they should is Whitney and Fistric. Something needs to be done about this and soon.

I would have bet $1000 (if I had it. ) that the Oilers would be outshot in the 3rd. It seems like clockwork that if they have the lead they let the other team dictate the pace and get back into the game.

Even after the Jones goal I had no confidence that lead would hold up.

Team doesn't have that killer instinct to put teams away and to not let teams back into games.

Columbus WILL make the playoffs... and I doubt the Oilers will at this stage. Those two teams are at the opposite ends of the spectrum in both talent and determination.

I have to watch it again, I missed the 1st goal so I'm not sure how that was. Any way that you slice it the 3-2 goal was deflating and he didn't win the shootout (which I missed). Dubnyk did not win us the game and quite frankly blowing a 3-1 lead usually means that a goaltender could've been better.

Not his best outing. Didn't do enough to win us this game - "us" being an endearing term for a ****-poor defensive squad that allows >12-13 shots every 3rd period

Definitely didn't do anything to lose it for us - that's on the defense.

Where's his strengths as a puck-moving, transitional defenseman - why are his GF/60 so low?

He's not ready for the role we've placed him in. I'm not calling him a bust, I'm not even calling him overrated. I'm saying this team needs to bring in some legitimate top-4 defensemen before they can start parading themselves as a playoff contender.

Oh ok well i wont hold my breath waiting for some more legit top 4 dmen to come in. Hall is terrible, schultz is terrible, petry is terrible, we get it.

Ok, so we can agree. He's playing like a "rookie" - and struggling to cope with the responsibility he's been given.

Best way to handle a guy with his talent level is to

1) shield him on the bottom pairing with a solid defenseman (not Nick Schultz, borderline #7 on this team)
2) Give him Grade-A PP opportunity, because in terms of PP point production from the blue line he's top-10 in the league.

As his game develops you slowly introduce him into a top-4 role. Kid might be 25-26 before we get a true understanding of WHERE he can play on the blue line.

I dont see anything wrong with a possible Fistric-J.Schultz pairing... Both could compliment each other nicely with Fistric providing him some protection as well..
Makes too much sense for it to be not tried already...

Isnt it already clear that Schultz-Schultz pairing is not big enough to handle the physical play? And isnt it obvious that Fistric plays a lot better on left side while N.Schultz plays RD fine ?
Smid-Petry
Whitney-N.Schultz
Fistric-J.Schultz..

I don't see a basis to your argument here. The team sags because of the goalie? That's a huge load of **** - the team sags because your team is inexperienced, not talented enough, and being mishandled by coaching.

>15 shots against in the 3rd period on a nightly basis is why this team blows leads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Petro Points

and what makes you think the goalie we replace with him will be an improvement?
Name me one goalie who would be available and be an upgrade?
Halak? and his 0.86 save %? Bernier? Vokoun? Bishop? We still wouldve lost tonight if we had Neimi and SJ had Dubnyk...
I dont think the team sags because they dont have faith in Dubnyk,, I think Dubnyk sags because he has no faith in his team..
Our D leaves him to dry on many occasions every game.. Not saying he had a great games but he hardly was the reason for this loss.

My basis is that the players are not robots and actually feel momentum shifting.
Why do people want Kreugar out?
Why do we have enforcers/pugilists?
Your telling me the talk that Horcoff had with the team when he came back did not boost the mental fortitude for the team did get them out of thier funk didn't matter?
This is huge physical and MENTAL game.
These guys are battling out there and your telling me the one guy that suppose to bail them out can't do it, they have to keep a high morale to keep working their a**ses off?
You bet you a** the team will crumble because of those weak links...oh.. but don't get me wrong, people already mentioned other weak links on this team. I just stating...obviously...that Dubnyk is definitely one.

And yes, I would have any of those other goalies than Dubnyk, Petro! I believe in all honestly, those other goalies are an upgrade.
But I guess we will never find out this season or the next.

I would have bet $1000 (if I had it. ) that the Oilers would be outshot in the 3rd. It seems like clockwork that if they have the lead they let the other team dictate the pace and get back into the game.

Even after the Jones goal I had no confidence that lead would hold up.

Team doesn't have that killer instinct to put teams away and to not let teams back into games.

Columbus WILL make the playoffs... and I doubt the Oilers will at this stage. Those two teams are at the opposite ends of the spectrum in both talent and determination.

CBJ will probably battle like hell for the remainder of the season but I can't see them making it with all of those road games remaining. That said, unlike the Oilers they're delivering on home ice and giving their long suffering fans their money's worth so props to them.

Columbus WILL make the playoffs... and I doubt the Oilers will at this stage. Those two teams are at the opposite ends of the spectrum in both talent and determination.

Lol, hi-lighted so a month from now you remember you said this

Columbus is riding a ridiculously hot goalie. The Oilers just lost a game because of theirs.

We dressed two centers tonight but people keep blaming coaching. Team played very well, poor defense and goaltending combined with inexperienced forwards is usually not a winning combination. It sure hasn't been here.

You guys remember last year after the hot start when Tamby said he thought those 20 games was the norm and he didn't want another lottery pick? What has happened since then and how many games has it been? We are way too soft on our management. We actually have gotten younger since that point, they are very obviously out of touch with the ability of the roster

My basis is that the players are not robots and actually feel momentum shifting.
Why do people want Kreugar out?
Why do we have enforcers/pugilists?
Your telling me the talk that Horcoff had with the team when he came back did not boost the mental fortitude for the team did get them out of thier funk didn't matter?
This is huge physical and MENTAL game.
These guys are battling out there and your telling me the one guy that suppose to bail them out can't do it, they have to keep a high morale to keep working their a**ses off?
You bet you a** the team will crumble because of those weak links...oh.. but don't get me wrong, people already mentioned other weak links on this team. I just stating...obviously...that Dubnyk is definitely one.

And yes, I would have any of those other goalies than Dubnyk, Petro! I believe in all honestly, those other goalies are an upgrade.
But I guess we will never find out this season or the next.

I guess SJ players really folded when Neimi let in that wrap around by Jones.. 90% of the goals scored in NHL look stoppable on replays... Dubnyk is good enough a goalie.
Big ticket goalies like Price\Fleury\Luongo etc all let in weak goals.. Teams lose momentum but you have other issues if a bad goal completely deflates your team..

Of all the players I want out, its Dubnyk. You can check all my posts, and this is the first game I am vehemently state my displeasure of this man.

Yup. Night after night anyone watching the games would see that Dubnyk is letting in too many weak goals.
We can disagree about *how* weak they are, but the holes in this guys game are just not getting any better.
Only a crappy team would have this guy as their starter.

Ah, so Eberle is gimped up thanks to a broken finger; that's one sniper pretty much down and out.

Then you have Yakupov, our next best sniper (he will be even better, I'm sure). He's playing his best hockey and no longer a huge liability, and he gets benched when we need him the most. Not only that, but benched after perhaps one of his best shifts in the NHL so far. WTF is Ralph doing? Is he trying to suck the life out of Yakupov? Yakupov has the best shot on the team, we need goal, and he benches him... Just horribad coaching, and that's being fair about it.

I guess SJ players really folded when Neimi let in that wrap around by Jones.. 90% of the goals scored in NHL look stoppable on replays... Dubnyk is good enough a goalie.
Big ticket goalies like Price\Fleury\Luongo etc all let in weak goals.. Teams lose momentum but you have other issues if a bad goal completely deflates your team..

MAF and Cam Ward are great examples of "reputation" goaltenders. They're actually average AT BEST goaltenders that coat-tail on defensively proficient teams after an isolated run of >0.920 save percentage hockey on a good team.

Carolina/Pittsburgh are better off with $2-3M goalies with similar save percentages rather than paying these guys 5-6M a year for their reputations.

A couple years back Fleury got injured and PITT played Johnson for >20 games. They had a better winning% with him than with MAF.

Smyth needed to play alot. We were down a centre because RNH did not suit up and Smyth is our best faceoff man.
I watched most of the game and was appalled by the play of Dubnyk and Petry. With poor goaltending and defense, do you expect to make the playoffs?
It is a shame we keep getting 1 pt out of these games. Kevin Lowe will get to keep his job and sell it to the fans that this team is "turning the corner". If we lost 10 straight games that would be best because there would be immense pressure to fire Lowe.

I guess SJ players really folded when Neimi let in that wrap around by Jones.. 90% of the goals scored in NHL look stoppable on replays... Dubnyk is good enough a goalie.
Big ticket goalies like Price\Fleury\Luongo etc all let in weak goals.. Teams lose momentum but you have other issues if a bad goal completely deflates your team..

Petro...yes...I absolutely, positively, wholeheartedly agree with you. You are 100% correct in that statemet!...What I'm trying to say is that Dubnyk does it almost every.single.game! It is so deflating and I have no faith in him whatsoever. I dread every game that he starts now. If you can tell me that Dubnyk is not one of the problems by the end of the season I will eat crow but I bet even you are a little hesitant to say Dubnyk is our No.1 Starter.